Motion Church | Warrior Poet Society, Week 1: "You Are the Man" Season two of the David series is here — and it picks up right where the last one left off, 15 months later. "King David, to me, is one of the most fascinating people in scripture because, man, his life had everything — the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, a man who genuinely loved God and failed God simultaneously." Last time, Motion Church covered David's early life — Samuel choosing the shepherd boy no one saw coming, and the iconic showdown with Goliath, where the takeaway was simple: God wastes nothing. "David had been preparing his entire life for that moment." This time, the series picks up in the messy middle, right after Bishop Chris preached the part where David's story gets really complicated — the scandal with Bathsheba, the abuse of power, the betrayal, the cover-up, and the death of her husband Uriah. And yes, "if you like drama, we got it." The text is 2 Samuel 12. God, because he cares deeply for David, sends the prophet Nathan — not to confront him directly, but to tell him a story. A rich man with everything he could ever want. A poor man with one beloved little lamb, raised like a daughter. And when a guest comes to town, the rich man takes the poor man's lamb rather than giving from his own abundance. David's anger burns. He's furious. "Surely the man who has done this deserves to die." And then Nathan drops it: "You are the man." That's the title. And it lands harder than it sounds — because here was David, burning with righteous indignation about somebody else's sin, while his own was sitting right there in the room with him. "It's a lot easier to see somebody else's sin than my own. It just seems so much more obvious when you're doing dumb stuff than when I'm doing dumb stuff." A key note in God's rebuke hits differently too — right in the middle of calling David out, God says, "If that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these." "God doesn't owe us anything. We owe him everything. God doesn't have to provide for us. He chooses to provide for us." And had David understood that, maybe the whole thing could have been avoided. "At the end of the day, what we really need more of is Jesus — his grace, his peace, his kindness, his goodness, his mercy." Which leads to what Jesus would say about the whole situation — Matthew 7:1-5. Everyone loves verse one: "Do not judge, so that you will not be judged." But nobody wants verses two through five. "We love verse one. We hate verses 2 through 5." The fuller picture isn't don't see the speck in your brother's eye. It's first take the log out of your own. Two things Jesus is clearly saying: take your own sin seriously, and be consistent. "Don't be so consumed with what other people are doing and where they got it wrong... those are specs, and sometimes we've got logs." And what Jesus is not saying is that we ignore the sins of people we love. "The most loving thing that you could do is tell them the truth." Like Nathan did for David — not with rage or condemnation, but with love and wisdom, because "God cares so deeply for David" and wanted to restore him. Progress on sin isn't always clean or linear. As one pastoral conversation this week reminded: "Maybe you're not who you want to be yet, but at least you're not who you used to be. Maybe you're not where you want to be yet, but thank God you're not where you used to be." Sanctification is a lifetime process — for newbies and 26-year church veterans alike. The closing challenge: "I think we can make such a significant impact on our society, our culture, our community — if we just start with us." Because once we were lost and now we're found. Once we were blind and now we see. And because of that, we go help other people find what we've found.
